Lochlan smiled. “Better still, let me tell Maggie and she’ll have his ears boxed.”
Braden feigned indignance. “I try and smooth over the matter with your lady and this is the payment I receive? Very well, you’re on your own with the matter. See if I help you again.”
Sin watched as his wife approached. More beautiful than the very angels in heaven, she eyed him with a determined stare. “Remember your promise to me, Sin. Only smiles are allowed today.”
He gave her a fake smile that showed his teeth.
She rolled her eyes. “‘Tis better than a frown anyway.”
Callie turned to face Simon and motioned for him to follow her. “My lord, Simon, might I have a word with you in private?”
Sin arched a brow. “Why would you wish that?”
She reached across the table and touched the tip of his nose. “I merely wish to ask him a question away from your hearing.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t wish you to hear it.”
“Aye,” Lochlan interjected, “what are you, Sin? Daft?”
Sin kicked the leg of Lochlan’s chair. He narrowed a hostile glare. “One day, brother, I hope to see a woman plot your downfall. Then I shall be the one laughing at you.”
“Downfall?” Callie asked. “How ominous you make it sound. There is no downfall being plotted. Merely a question being passed.”
Sin looked at her drolly. “Aye, and empires have been splintered apart over the mere utterance of a single word.”
“But it’s not an empire I wish to splinter. It’s the ice encasing your heart.”
Silence rang in the hall on the heel of those words. Sin sat in stunned disbelief.
Callie blushed as if embarrassed by her confession and tucked her chin to her chest.
Simon quickly got up and led her from the hall so that they could speak.
“Sin,” Lochlan said from beside him, “I realize I’m not a man to be giving advice on this matter, but it seems to me only a fool would let a woman like that slip from his grasp. If I ever found a woman who could look past my shortcomings and still want to be with me, I would move heaven and earth to keep her by my side.”
“You’re not me, little brother. And I can’t let myself be open to her when I know that in a short time she will hate me. Hatred and scorn are mother’s milk to me and yet I can’t bear the thought of seeing it in her eyes.”
“Then don’t betray her.”
He looked at Lochlan. How easy his brother made it sound. “All I have ever had in this world is my word and my honor. They are the only things that weren’t stripped from my flesh. The only things I have never bartered or sold for my survival. And you would have me forsake them? You ask more of me than I am able to give. Nay, I must do as I promised.”
And yet as he looked to where his wife had vanished with Simon, he hurt from the pain of what his honor would see him do. But it wasn’t just his honor that mattered. He knew Henry in a way few men did. If he failed to deliver The Raider, Henry would see this clan obliterated.
Silently, Sin ate his food while his brothers made their excuses and left him alone in the hall.
He had barely finished eating when Callie returned. She looked to the vacated seats. “They left already?”
“I fear my dour mood hastened them off. Now are you going to tell me what you spoke to Simon about?”
“I have absolutely no intention of answering that.”
He shook his head at her. “You are a cheeky lass.”
“I am that. Vexing to the point my father oft said that I would try the patience of Job.”
She took his hand and pulled him to his feet. “Now, we’re off to have our day of fun. Come, Sir Ogre, and let me see if I can keep a smile on your face.”
